CLOSING THE LOOP
Issue: Industrial systems are linear, take-make-waste systems. Natural, cyclical, living systems are destroyed when resources are depleted and waste accumulates in the biosphere.
Response: Interface is redesigning its processes and products into cyclical material flows where "waste equals food." We are reducing use of raw materials and working to get the most value out of the materials that we employ. This includes careful recycling of synthetic materials so that waste materials in society become valuable raw materials in industry. It also means keeping organic materials uncontaminated so they may return to their natural systems.
Reducing the Use of Petro-Based Materials
Through the use of renewable energy, re-materialization (replacing petro-based materials with non petro-based materials), and de-materialization (creating products with less "stuff") we have reduced our use of petroleum-based materials.Recycling and Bio-based Content in Products
The percentage of recycled or biobased content in products worldwide has increased from 0.5% in 1996 to 20% in 2006.
Articles:
InterfaceFABRIC Featured in Wall Street JournalJanuary 25, 2007; Page D6
Vehicles that Use Recycled Materials
By: Raymond Flandez
Global Voices, Volume 1, December 2006 – “InterfaceFLOR in Americas Adopts ‘Cool’ Approach to Ending its Reliance on Petroleum”
Press Releases:
InterfaceFABRIC Creates Next Generation Upholstery Fabric for 2008 Ford Escape Hybrid: Soda Bottle Resin Finds New Life as Seating FabricInterfaceFLOR Commercial Wins Georgia Air & Waste Management Association Environmental Award for Cool Blue™ and TacTiles™
Bentley Prince Street Launches New Eco-Friendly Adhesive Line to Complement Expanded Recycled Content Carpet Backings
InterfaceFABRIC Biobased Fabric Composting Trial is Featured in BioCycle.
InterfaceFLOR Commercial Wins EBJ Technology Merit Award for Cool Blue™
Recycling
Recycling is an important step in the quest for sustainability; it is a wonderful start, but not a solution. We began our journey with a commitment to lead others forward in this front, and that is exactly what we have done. Many in our industry have now taken important "first steps" in recycling by developing new products made primarily from recycled content and encouraging suppliers to increase recycled content in raw materials.Having achieved many successes at this level, Interface has now taken the next step in recycling. Rather than simply developing "greener" products, Interface is committed to developing technologies that will enable us to feed our factories with recycled raw materials, harvested from billions of square yards of existing carpeting and textiles. This includes nylon face pile recycled into new nylon yarn; backing material recycled into new backing materials; and in our textile business, polyester fabrics recycled into polyester fiber for the manufacture of new fabrics.
Using these technologies, we can "close the loop", and use precious materials over and over in a cyclical fashion, rather than sending them to landfills or down cycling them into lower-value forms. Linear practices from the Industrial Revolution must be replaced by cyclical ones, more similar to natural processes. In nature, there is no waste; one organism's waste is another's food. For our industrial process, so dependent on petrochemical, man-made raw materials, this means technical "food" reincarnated by recycling into the product's next life cycle. This is called Closed Loop Recycling. This process is best illustrated in "Interface's Prototypical Model of the 21st Century."
Closed Loop Recycling
- Decreases the quantity of material that needs to be purchased
- Decreases dependence on raw materials from the Earth's crust
- Reduces the amount of non-recyclable product waste, keeping waste out of landfills
- Decreases the amount of money and resources needed to manufacture products
- Increases the amount of available capital available to invest in other sustainable technologies
- Creates cost savings for our customers, allowing us to serve them better
Interface Research and Development is working extensively with our flooring and fabrics companies to create technologies for:
- Recycling post-consumer carpet and fabrics
- Reextruding postindustrial fiber
- Reusing PVC backing
- Identifying single polymer resources
- Creating products designed to be dismantled for reuse
- Evaluating performance of renewable polymer systems
Sustainable Design Processes
Our company's commitment to sustainability drives each of our individual business units to find unique ways to increase sustainable product design at the local level.Interface Americas has taken the lead in this area through the introduction of a number of modular carpet products from InterfaceFLOR Commercial designed for delivering greater durability with less material; a process called the Sustainable Design Stairway.
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The Sustainable Design Stairway process began in 1995, when Interface Americas adopted four primary principles intended to reduce the environmental footprint of its processes:
The initial step supporting Interface Americas' goal was to do something. By applying the reduce, reuse and recycle theory, Interface Americas took significant steps to reduce the environmental footprint of its operations. The "reduce" programs began in 1995 with the "QUEST - War on Waste" initiative. At that time, InterfaceFLOR Commercial began to design carpet tile products made with less material.
In the first four years, the QUEST initiative saved Interface $113 million while eliminating tons of material waste. The Interface "less is more" design strategy began delivering carpet tile products made with as much as a pound less material per square yard.
The energy that would have been required to make that one pound of raw material summed over a year's production (embodied energy) turned out to be more than twice the total process energy consumed by all of InterfaceFLOR Commercial in a year; a savings of 200%.
At the same time that material density was decreasing in InterfaceFLOR's products, the durability of the products was actually increasing.
The introduction our Caribbean™ style carpet tile was the first product developed using the process called integrated pattern design. Caribbean soon paved the way for the development of more sustainable modular flooring products, lowering InterfaceFLOR Commercial's costs by nearly 25% while they continued to deliver superior products.
In 1996, InterfaceFLOR Commercial began integrating post-industrial backing waste materials into product manufacture, again saving money and reducing virgin material consumption.
In 1998, InterfaceFLOR Commercial asked the question, "What else can we do to incorporate our sustainability goal into product design?" As a result of research and development, InterfaceFLOR Commercial introduced NexStep®, a non-PVC recyclable cushion backing containing 20% recycled material.
In 1999, InterfaceFLOR Commercial introduced the Déjà vu™ Collection, a carpet tile product using recycled nylon and 100% recycled vinyl secondary backing.
In 2000 InterfaceFLOR Commercial introduced a number of other modular products in their standard product offering with 100% recycled fiber and 100% recycled secondary backing.
Examples of these products include:
Sabi™, Prairie School™ Collection (Taliesen™ Falling Water™, and Robie House™).
For more information on specifying these and other Interface products please visit the InterfaceFLOR web sites:
InterfaceFLOR Commercial (U.S. & Canada)
InterfaceFLOR Europe
InterfaceFLOR Australia
Additionally, InterfaceFLOR Commercial increased its offerings of modular products based on delivering more durability with less material. Examples of these products include:
Wabi Stripe®, Wabi Weave®, Safari™, Pop Art™ Collection, Tatami Ni™, Shima Ni™, Wataru Ni®, Silk Route™, Furrows™, Chenille Warp™, Prairie School™ Collection (Taliesin™, Falling Water™ and Robie House™)
For more information on specifying these and other Interface products please visit these web sites: InterfaceFLOR Commercial (US & Canada); InterfaceFLOR Europe; or InterfaceFLOR Australia.
At Interface, we understand that it takes fundamental redesign of our products, our manufacturing processes and our delivery of services to approach environmental sustainability.
One of our major steps in redesigning floorcovering has been in the continued development of design concepts that allow our products to be easily separated into their components, "designed with a thermal zipper" for ease of recycling at end-of-life.
Looking to the future, Interface will strive to develop products whose entire composition (facecloth and backing) is made from one polymer type. These single polymer products will eliminate the need for processes to separate the component parts of the product.
InterfaceFLOR Europe currently offers InterlockTM, vinyl product made from recycled post industrial waste. It can be recycled back into itself at the end of its useful life; a true closed loop product.
For more information on this product, please visit the InterfaceFLOR Europe web site.
We are also evaluating polymers made from raw materials derived from natural resources such as plants. These biopolymer fibers derived from non-petroleum based resources are intended not only to be recyclable, but also compostable.
The following products contain biodegradable fibers made from natural sources:
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Terra™ is a modular product for residential applications, made from a blend of
PLA and nylon fibers. It is available from
FLOR.
A number of InterfaceFLOR products are available with PLA fibers included as a blend with Nylon 6,6 in the face cloth. Progress is underway to find other uses for PLA in the manufacturing process.
Inteface offers Terratex® products made with 100% PLA fibers and they have recently introduced a biobased textile backing product made from PLA. Interface continues to develop new products and processes that emulate nature.
- Entropy™, a product of InterfaceFLOR Commercial, is the best example of the underlying philosophy of mimicking nature in Interface's approach to solving problems. It is the pioneer product in Interface's i2 Collection, and since its release in 2000, it has been one of Interface's most specified products. The product reflects an adherence to the randomness in nature while providing numerous other desired benefits. The unique pattern and coloration of each tile allows for a non-directional installation that is much faster and less wasteful than traditional floorcoverings. Installations of i2 result in no more than 2% waste. In keeping with Interface's objective of using the least amount of the most necessary raw materials in manufacturing its products, Entropy has no dye lots and there is no need for attic stock. Entropy's unique design brings with it the ability to mask soiling and staining; and the ability to have someone other than a carpet professional access a particular portion of the installation without visible appearance of disturbance. For more information on Entropy, please visit The Market.
Bentley Prince Street has introduced a new friendly packaging and sampling system.
Ed Blamey, European sustainability director for InterfaceFLOR was interviewed by Sustain magazine for an article entitled, “We Take it All Back,” focused on product take-back programs and product life cycles. The article first appeared in Sustain’s sister publication, Corporate Social Responsibility CSR magazine, Issue 2. Click here to read the article from Sustain, v06 i01. For a free copy of the article, visit Sustain’s web site.
"Weaving Sustainable Stories--Fabrics of the Future"
Terratex® is perhaps the most complete recycling success story for Interface. It is an umbrella brand for a line of commercial panel and upholstery fabrics manufactured by InterfaceFABRIC.Made from 100% post-consumer and/or post-industrial recycled fiber or commercially compostable material
- Manufactured using processes that reduce waste, emissions, energy and water usage, and potentially toxic byproducts
- Meeting and/or exceeding the same quality standards of fabrics manufactured using virgin materials and conventional processes
- Made of a single polymer type, so that it can be composted or recycled (100%) at the end of its useful life-cycle
The impact of this transformation has been a savings of thousands of barrels of oil. It has amounted to greater than 60% of all materials consumed by InterfaceFABRIC's Guilford Facility being post-consumer recycled material. InterfaceFABRIC is reclaiming Terratex fabric through its ReSKU® reclamation program to make upholstery seating cushions. Click here for an example.
InterfaceFABRIC is exploring methods and markets for composting its biobased Terratex products. See these articles:
BioCycle, May, 2006
In Business, May/June, 2006
For more information visit the Terratex® web site.
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